Tag Archives: Edinburgh Secular Society

Rejecting a plea by some city churches to abandon plans for car parking charges on Sundays Cllr Adam McVey, Deputy Convenor of Edinburgh City Council’s Transport Committee, stated that Edinburgh was a ‘secular city’. He continued that ‘the concerns of just one faith could not be allowed to influence city policy’.

Abandoning plans for Sunday parking charges on behalf of churches would probably offend equalities legislation since similar privileges might be required for mosques on Fridays and the synagogue on Saturdays.

At the opening of the Annual Assembly of the Church of Scotland on Saturday 17 May 2014 the Lord High Commissioner, Prince Edward gave an address on the theme of community, contrasting "the assertion of legalistic rights" with the Christian teaching of responsibility.

Could this possibly be a reference to the persistence of the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Government refusing to consider that the decades long arrangements whereby three church voting representatives are added to each local authority education committee in Scotland might actually not be inconformity with the Equality and Human Rights Act 0f 2010?. Does he mean that religious concepts of ‘responsibility’ should allow churches and the Scottish Government not to follow the law?

The Church and Scottish Government are in dangerous constitutional territory if this unlawfulness continues. Scotland should be subject to the rule of law, not the interests of powerful groups and interests.

See the letter by ESS Honorary President, Professor Norman Bonney, in the Scotsman Monday 19 May 2014